Avoid delays with your EMDG claim 17 Jan 2017

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Export Market Development Grant

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) program assists small to medium sized Australian businesses expand into overseas markets by reimbursing 50% of eligible costs associated with the development of export opportunities – up to a maximum of $150,000 in grant funding.

There are nine categories of export-related costs that can be claimed under the EMDG program, including overseas marketing trips, registration of eligible IP in overseas markets and overseas representative costs.

Austrade recently released some statistics on the EMDG program, which indicates that as the program approaches the main “30 November” lodgement deadline, claimants can expect their grant processing time to increase significantly. As indicated by the graph below, this is due to November being the month in which the highest volume of applications are lodged.

All EMDG applications are audited by Austrade in one way or another, whether it is an in-person audit, an email audit or a simple file check. Generally speaking, Austrade audits EMDG applications on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Given this fact, the timing of your application submission can have a significant impact on how long it takes Austrade to process your claim. The graph below illustrates that claims lodged prior to the end of October are generally processed in weeks, rather than months.

The above statistics represent the average time it took for an EMDG claim to be processed in the 2015 grant year (i.e. from time the application is submitted to Austrade to the time the audit is concluded).

If you are yet to begin your EMDG application, we strongly recommend contacting one our EMDG experts to get the process started.